Recent performances

2026

In March Amici kicked off 2026 with new music and a new Musical Director!  We were delighted to welcome Laurence Blyth as our new MD. The theme of March’s concert ‘Music for Mary’ allowed us to cover a really broad range of styles including Hildegard of Bingen, Monteverdi, Bruckner and Stravinsky.

In May we visited St Mary’s Church, Stogumber, and presented a mixed programme called “The Choral Mixtape” with music by Todd, Rutter, Shearing, Goodall, Brahms, Whitacre, Passerau and Bartlet.

2025

In May, Amici performed chamber works by James MacMillan, Cecilia McDowall, Eric Whitacre, John Taverner, Eric Whitacre and Jonathan Dove, among others at St John’s Church, Wellington. This was quite a challenging programme, directed by Guest Conductor Laurence Blyth.

Following this, Amici were delighted to be invited to sing at the Staple Fitzpaine Flower Festival on 21 June, where we had a fantastic evening despite the very hot weather! Surrounded by beautiful flower displays, Rutter’s Wind in the Willows was such fun to perform again, and the flora and fauna themed second half was an absolute joy.

In December, in Andrew Trewhella’s last concert as Musical Director, Amici performed two pieces by Bob Chilcott – The Rainbow and Mary, Mother – with singers from Taunton School joining us for the former, and celebrated St Cecilia’s Day with Benjamin Britten’s Ode to St Cecilia.  Our Patron, Elizabeth Watts, took over the baton for a performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and we finished with the wonderful Blest Pair of Sirens by Hubert Parry.

Other music that we have sung

Bach	‘Jesu Meine Freude’, Mass in B Minor, ‘St. John’ Passion, ‘St. Matthew’ Passion
Beethoven	Choral Fantasia
Bernstein	Chichester Psalms
Brahms	Ein Deutsches Requiem
Douglas Coombes	Requiem (UK premier), Gloria (composed for Amici)
Duruflé	Requiem
Elgar	Dream of Gerontius (with Taunton Choral Society)
Fauré	Requiem, Cantique de Jean Racine
Handel	‘Messiah’
Haydn	‘Nelson’ Mass, ‘Harmoniemesse’
Karl Jenkins	‘The Armed Man’, Requiem
Mendelssohn	‘Elijah’ (semi-staged performance)
Menotti	‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ (staged)
Monteverdi	Vespers
Mozart	Vespers K339, Requiem K626
Parry	‘I Was Glad’, ‘Blest Pair of Sirens’, Magnificat 1897
Patterson	Millennium Mass
Rachmaninov	Vespers
Rossini	Stabat Mater, Petit Messe Solennelle
Rutter	Requiem, Magnificat, ‘Feel the Spirit’
Karl Rütti	Missa Angelorum
Will Todd	‘Mass in Blue’
Verdi	Requiem (with King’s College choir)
Vivaldi	Gloria

Not to mention literally hundreds of part songs by Bruckner, Elgar, Byrd, Gershwin, Stanford, Whitacre, Thompson, Berlin, Morley, Mercer, Porter, Vaughan-Williams, Harris, Bridge, Sullivan, PDQ Bach, Bart, Kern, Britten, Tippet, Finzi, Taverner, Pearsall, Holst, Purcell, Walton, Allain, Bennett, Shearing, Rutter et al